I am not sure that the received wisdom’ that Young Urban Chinese Girls (FIB for short) are influenced by the Japanese Harajuku look is correct. For starters, there is no lost love between China and Japan, and in the chaotic mess that is Beijing traces of Japanese aesthetics are thin on the ground. Chinese Urban Girls are more interested in Western globally known designers (the usual suspects: Chanel, Vuitton, Dior) and their fashion ideals tends more towards « bling » than « swag ». It’s all about Paraître ie: Showing & Saving FACE than true style. Japan Style « Kawaï » is simpler in China. The girls do not go by specific genres and influences. I have never seen them « organised » or walking down as a group coded with clothes. Young Japanese girls harness their energy with Harajuku Street Style and its sub-genre: Gothic Lolitas, CosPlay etc… They are influenced by Pop culture, TV & Pop Stars and their ultra stylized cartoons culture. Since I know next to nothing about Japan and its codes I won’t go further in that slippery road, but I feel though that Japanese girls are reacting and protesting with more precision to their society’s expectations with outrageous outfits. They seem much more coded and specific in their style with genres and sub-genres within each tribe. Individual style seems more the result of an intellectual process that lead one girl towards one genre, one tribe rather than the next one. Not so in Beijing.

The « kid’s look » in China is I think totally different.

I think it stems yet again from that absolute freedom from all references (and taste levels at ground zero by our standards) that lets women dress atany age like a 6 years old. Chinese girls have no trace of recent history to draw inspirations from and still very few girls get how much one can express oneself through clothes.

(There are hundreds of blogs dedicated to the genre of Japanese street style culture). The picture below is from a wordpress blog. www.danihelau.wordpress.com

Some FIB are slowly getting there but it is still very very fresh and very very uncertain. As greatly as they do not fear ridicule they are equally insecure about their fashion instincts. There is pretty much only one degree to the FIB dress code: I like, I buy, I wear. Period. no sub-interpretations, no intellectual innuendos or subtle political or sexual messages; no pause button, only fast-forward. All over the streets teenagers, young adults and older women are wearing clothes definitely not appropriate for anyone over 7 years old. They love « cute » (Kě’ài/可爱) in all colors and prints and shapes. Some are subtle like this Summer 2012 Prada’s « Bambi » print. Those knockoffs were a huge hit this summer or the Marc by Marc Jacobs bird print. This trend is more first degree with « Hello Kitty » galore, animals print – as in cats, doves, teddy bears, bunnies, mice, Mickey, kittens and the ubiquitous PANDAS as well as all sorts of Hallmark postcards staples: hearts, stars, rainbows, clouds etc. All these sugary prints and then pastels, hand-drawn cartoons, crystals, cutesy animals and feathers, and pompoms, and shiny stuff. I don’t love it, at least they are not trying to look younger: It’s all first degree.

Thinking long and hard about this phenomenon, I have another theory i’d like to thrown in the pot about to this sartorial ‘en masse’ regression.

Chinese kids are driven to succeed from the youngest age by their parents in quite a brutal manner.

The Tiger Mother isn’t a cultural exception, she is the norm in Middle to Upper Class China.

Kids from second Grade onward have daily tons of homework. Even in the « soft » international school both my kids attend there are many Battle Royale between the ‘permissive’ western parents’ (us) who do not approve of the 50 minutes of daily homework imposed on second graders and the ‘Tiger parents’ mostly Asian (whether Chinese, Korean or Malaysian…) who think kids are coddled if they do not work daily until bedtime when they return from school. Middle to Upper classes Chinese parents make no apologies explaining that kids must obey, do their homework, play an instrument, speak at least two languages, never question authority and be competitive from kindergarten on up. I have met recently a teacher that works exclusively from Saturday 8am till Sunday 5pm teaching privileged Chinese schoolchildren English. Those kids have no time off seven days a week all year long, vacations time of course is packed with more classes. Chinese parents want their often only child to be on top of their classes, competition is fierce to get in the best school. 20% of humanity is packed in the same country.

In that kid-eat-kid ambiance, is it imaginable that these ‘growing young women’ at long last released from parental authority would want to recapture a part of their lost childhood? Perhaps dressing up with cuddly bears and flying butterflies and sparkly princesses, or play pretend with the wedding/cocktail dresses of a prior post is a mean to reclaim a fundamental need to play? As the mom of two young bona fide children it is not unusual for me to pass by a store in Beijing and spot the cutest outfit only to be told that it start in size 4US, not the 4T I am ready to purchase.

That girl was probably a young teenager, yet again her dress code was more appropriate to someone a decade younger. The Babies and the white socks were more appropriate for my daughter’s school uniform than the Diamond Jubilee Party at the British Embassy.